Social Security, other benefits switch to electronic payments by March 1

If you still receive a paper check for your Social Security, VA, or other federal benefit payments, you are required by law to switch to an electronic payment method by March 1. You can choose to get your payments by direct deposit to a bank or credit union account or to a Direct Express debit card account.

Walt Henderson of the U.S. Treasury is Director of the Go Direct Campaign. He says while the vast majority of South Carolinians who are receiving federal benefits are already using electronic payment, more than 75,000 are still receiving paper checks.

“About 76, 000 in South Carolina currently still receive paper checks; that is about seven percent of the payments that we send to South Carolina. So the state is about at the national average of 93 percent of those already receiving benefit payments by direct deposit,” says Henderson.

Henderson says about 42 million people nationwide are still getting their benefit checks in the mail.

Henderson says electronic payment is safer than paper checks: “Paper checks are expensive to produce and they can be lost or stolen.”

The website is Go Direct. org for more information on the program or call 1-800-333-1795. Recipients can also make the switch at their local bank or credit union.